Once upon a time there were activist warrior scholars who served the needs and protected African Americans against the onslaught of laws designed to subjugate, marginalize and mass incarcerate this population disproportionately to their representation and the occurrence of such crimes. Most of these involved rights proclaimed under the constitution and dealt with receiving an equal education.

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

The above statement was written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born of slaves in Virginia he was self-taught and eventually obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree. Although he is the person who established Africa American history as a monthly celebration, he is best known for his ground breaking tractate: The Mis-Education of the Negro.

The book spoke of the American educational system, with special reference to its paralyzing impact on African Americans. Mis-education from his perspective was a tragedy, that relegated blacks to a brain-washed acceptance of the inferior role assigned to him whites. The book proffers a harsh critique on both criticizes the system, that eventually ends up with people and mis-educating others and even learning and spreading hate in terms of race by the miseducated. Read more…